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755 



of the valley of Egypt, and it was here that 

 God confined the flies ; for he says, it shall 

 be a sign of this separation of the people, that 

 not one fly should be seen in the sand or 

 pasture-ground, the land of Goshen ; and 

 this kind of soil has ever since been the refuge 

 of all cattle emigrating from the black earth 

 to the lower part of Atbara." 



To the foregoing graphic narrative by 

 Bruce we shall only add, that, much as this, 

 as well as other particulars on subjects 

 equally extraordinary, were at one time ri- 

 diculed and regarded as unworthy of belief, 

 strong corroborative testimony may be found 

 in the works of modern naturalists, as well 

 as of recent African travellers (Denham and 

 Clapperton among others), whose veracity 

 lias never been called in question. 



ZOANTHTJS. A genus of Zoophytes es- 

 tablished by Cuvier, and giving its name to 

 a division of the great group of animals to 

 which it belongs (Zoantharia); in this genus 

 the body is elongated, conic and peduncu- 

 lated, and springs from a base common to 

 several individuals ; as the name implies, the 

 species of the genus resemble flowers, such as 

 an expanded daisy. 



ZOEA. The name given by Bosc to what 

 he regarded as a distinct genus of decapod 

 Crustacea, different species of which are 

 found in the ocean ; Mr. Thompson believes 

 that these curious looking spined creatures 

 are the larvae of long and short-tailed Crus- 

 tacea, immediately after their exclusion 

 from the egg. Mr. Arthur Adams was much 

 struck with their curious and fantastic 

 shapes ; one form, he observes, would serve 

 as an excellent model for a grotesque mon- 

 ster in a pantomime ; in fact they all more 

 resemble phantasms than the ordinary or- 

 ganizations we are in the habit of contem- 

 plating. He doubts the accuracy of Mr. 

 Thompson's opinion, that these whimsical- 

 looking creatures are merely the larva of 

 different kinds of crabs, particularly as they 

 are found in the high seas, where few of the 

 larger Crustacea are ever discovered. How- 

 ever in many cases Mr. Thompson has ob- 

 served the metamorphosis take place, espe- 

 cially on the Irish coast. We must refer to 

 his memoirs in the third volume of the En- 

 tomological Magazine, as well as to his Me- 

 moirs on Crustacea. 



ZONITIS. A genus of Coleopterous insects 

 belonging to the family Cantharidae, the 

 species of which are found on flowers. 



ZONURID^E. A name given by Mr. 

 Gray to a family of Saurian reptiles. 



ZOOARCES. [See VIVIPAROUS BLENNY.] 



ZOOPHYTES. A great division of the 

 Animal Kingdom, containing beings which 

 are always evidently more simple in or- 

 ganization than in the other divisions, and 

 which have their parts more or less distinctly 

 arranged round an axis, a dispositon which 

 frequently gives them the shape of flowers, 

 and hence the name, which means living 

 plants, or plant-like animals. The name 

 Kiuliata, or radiated animals, is also applied 



to this division. It contains the Star-fishes 

 and Sea-eggs, as well as the Actiniae, Corals, 

 and Corallines. For the history of the two 

 first of these, so far as they are found in the 

 British Islands, we must refer our readers to 

 the work of Professor Forbes, which is de- 

 voted to them, while Dr. Johnston's History 

 of British Zoophytes will give ample and 

 interesting information, as well as admirable 

 I figures of all the genera and species belong- 

 ; ing to the last mentioned. There are none 

 j who have opportunities of visiting the sea- 

 '. coast who should neglect to examine and 

 study these animals. The Reverend David 

 j Landsborough, in Ms Excursions to Arran, 

 has well alluded to one of these Coralline 

 Zoophytes, which he had taken from a 

 scallop-shell to which it was attached. When 

 out of the water, the Plumularia pinnata 

 looks like a dirty and worn white feather. 

 He says, you would not think that that fea- 

 ther had life, but, place it in water, it imme- 

 diately recovers from its state of collapse, 

 and, though still a feather, has become one 

 of great beauty and elegance. " But it is only 

 the habitations that you see ; the alarmed 

 inhabitants have fled into their houses. But 

 place the polypidom, as it is called, in a 

 tumbler of sea-water, and, when the alarm 

 is over, the inhabitants will again appear. 

 The polypes are hydra-form, and spread 

 forth many tentacula in search of food, 

 which they greedily grasp. The feather is 

 formed of calcareous matter, mixed with 

 gelatine, to give it flexibility, so that it may 

 the better stand the buffeting of the waves. 

 Observe the stem or quill of the feather, and 

 you will see that it is full of red matter. 

 That is the medullary pulp. Every plumule 

 of the feather is a street. Even with the 

 naked eye you may observe on each plumule 

 about a dozen notches or denticles. Each 

 of these is the house or cell, as it is called, 

 of a polype : so that, in a good specimen, we 

 see a kind of marine village, which, under 

 the teaching of God, has been beautifully 

 constructed by the thousand inhabitants 

 which it contains." Many of the more trans- 

 parent Zoophytes are highly luminous, and, 

 in some cases, as Mr. Landsborough men- 

 tions in the Edinburgh New Philosophical 

 Journal, vol. xxxii. p. 170., each polype 

 seems as if it had a will of its own, for when 

 agitated, after being taken from the water, 

 " they lighted and extinguished their little 

 lamps, not simultaneously, but with rapid 

 irregularity, so that this running fire had a 

 very lively appearance." Mr. Darwin, in 

 the admirable journal to which we have re- 

 ferred so often, speaks of a Zoophyte closely 

 allied to Clytia, of which he put a large tuft 

 in a basin of salt-water. " When it was 

 dark," he adds, " I found that as often as I 

 rubbed any part of a branch, the whole be- 

 came strongly phosphorescent with a green 

 light ; I do not think I ever saw any object 

 more beautifully so. But the remarkable 

 circumstance was, that the flashes of light 

 always proceeded up the branches, from the 

 base towards the extremity." This lumi- 

 nosity would seem to be chiefly produced by 

 irritation, for living specimens have been 

 kept for days in sea-water, and observed at 



